


Near Misses

by aurelie_saintjuste



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Prompt Fill, Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 12:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6565981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurelie_saintjuste/pseuds/aurelie_saintjuste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy sees her scars as occupational hazards.  Daniel sees them as warnings. </p>
<p>(Please note - contains minor spoilers for Season 2!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Near Misses

Daniel traced them gently with his fingers, almost in fear that they may still cause her pain.

He hated how dismissive she was of them.

“They’re just scars, Daniel, everyone has at least one or two,” Peggy assured him, trying to distract him from the neatly-stitched run in she’d had with a blade to her thigh during the Leviathan case in New York. 

“Besides,” she said softly, training her lips delicately against his jawline, “Is this really the conversation you want to have right now?” 

It a warm summer night in Los Angeles, and though it was still early in their relationship, Peggy had all but moved out of her room at Stark’s mansion, and began spending more and more of her evenings in Daniel’s home. At first, and perhaps more for the sake of pretending to maintain at least some propriety, she’d moved into his spare bedroom.

It did not take long for her living arrangements to change yet again. Peggy insisted his bed was more comfortable than hers. 

Especially when he was in it.

She twined her fingers in his, where they were still running against the exposed flesh of her thigh. Peggy couldn’t quite decide where the recent fascination with her scars had come from, but pressed up against him, clad in a short, white silk nightgown and moving her efforts along his jaw to begin a trail of kisses down his throat, she was determined to take his mind off the subject.   
   
“They’re stories, Peg. Near misses, in some cases,” Daniel said, his voice thick as he tilted his head just slightly, giving her better access down his throat. 

He wasn’t letting it go.

She pulled away, propping herself up on an elbow to meet his eyes. Peggy paused for a brief, calculating moment before sitting up straight and pulling the silk garment over her head.

Left only in white lace panties, she sat on her knees and started with the one he’d been examining first. “Leviathan. New York. Stabbed in the thigh - Jarvis stitched it up.” 

The tour continued to her right leg, to a very thin, straight scar, “Six years old. I was chasing Michael around the park and tripped. Sliced my knee open on a rock.” 

“This next one I’m assuming you know all about,” Peggy said, raising an eyebrow as she showed off the three perfect, circular bullet wounds to her shoulder. He had, after all, managed to eventually identify her in a photograph based on her military record of the injury.

… Daniel had then tried to arrest her for treason, thanks in part to being identified by that scar. Now wasn’t the time to remind him of that.

She stuck out her left hand and pointed at her thumb, where a short scar curved across the base. “Pocket knife.” Peggy said flatly. This was not as exciting as she suspected he wanted it to be.

That left the one that she was sure had set his mind so focused on the subject.

“Whitney Frost. Rebar through the abdomen,” Peggy said softly, her hands touched the spot gently. Though it had fully healed, it wasn’t lost on her how lucky she was to be sitting safe and warm in a bed, nearly naked in front of the man she loved, showing off her scars.

… And then she understood.

Daniel sat up, leaning against the headboard as he admired the scene in front of him. He wanted desperately to run his hands against her skin, to smooth away the memories of all of the times that their work had put her directly in the line of fire. Instead, he watched her carefully. Peggy’s loose dark curls fell over her naked shoulders. Her eyes were soft, as he assumed she reminisced about the night where she’d begged him not to take her to a hospital. Where she’d nearly bled out on his ex-fiance’s sofa. Where he pleaded with her to pull through.

“All near misses,” he said again, reaching a hand out to pull her close. His skin tingled as he relished the feel of hers directly against his. Peggy pulled the sheets around herself and settled with her head against his shoulder, an arm draped across him. “Admirable accomplishments in the end, sure. But near misses.” 

“So many people have given and done and sacrificed so much more than I have,” she whispered, her fingertips idly tracing circles in his bicep, “I can handle a few scars if it means finishing the job. If I can protect those around me.”

He ran a hand through her hair, before threading his fingers through the curls to pull her into a kiss. 

“I’m never going to stop you from doing everything you can to finish the job, Peggy. But if this relationship is as real as I hope it is, you’ve gotta let me at least try to help you. To try to protect you. To worry about you … at least sometimes.” he said, pulling away just slightly to meet her eyes.

It was a strange feeling, to allow someone to worry about her, but he raised a valid argument; they were more a team now than ever. She knew what she would be willing to sacrifice to save Daniel in any situation. She was going to have to become comfortable with the idea that someone was willing to do the same for her.

Peggy nodded, her eyes not moving from his. “Fine. But only sometimes, Daniel.” 

Daniel pretended to be annoyed, trying to restore her playful mood at the beginning of the conversation. He reached a hand under the sheets around her shoulders and trailed his fingertips lightly up her spine. She shivered, despite the warm California evening.

“You’re impossible, Carter.”

“You signed up for this, Chief.”

**Author's Note:**

> Available on Tumblr here: http://agent-aurelie.tumblr.com/post/142672264930/near-misses-word-count-957-genre-romance-a
> 
> Feedback and comments are so appreciated! Follow me on Tumblr at "agent-aurelie" for more prompt fills and the Alphabet Challenge. :)


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